Robert, Well your questions are a personal preference; however, I will share what I do. I do give my students the initial zero. This does several things...they wake up and realize I am serious and on top of what is going on and it immediately opens a dialog with the students about why the assignment was not submitted and what they are doing about it. They are typically less likely to do the same later in the semester. I do enforce the late point policy I use as well...I do this because the reality is that on a job they are more likely to just lose the job and not be given any kind of "point reduction" equivalent. They are also given up to two additional days to complete the work which gives them an advantage over the ones that submitted it online. Herbert Brown III